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Project EarthView

Where Learning for Life Begins

The Bridgewater State College EarthView, a 20-foot inflatable globe, is now traveling to area schools.

The Need

Geography is a dynamic discipline at the intersection of STEM education and global education. Project EarthView is a joint endeavor of the Department of Geography and the Center for the Advancement of STEM Education at Bridgewater State University.

With the support of the Office of the President and the Division of External Affairs, EarthView has reached tens of thousands of students in Massachusetts, and has traveled to the State House in Boston and several regional and national academic conferences.

The Globe

The EarthView is both a fascinating teaching tool and a delicate work of art. The outside is a hand-painted, large-scale map of the Earth's surface, showing biological communities, rivers, seas, landforms, continents, islands, oceans, and major cities. The inside is a two-story, portable classroom that reveals the positions of continents, islands, and landforms relative to tectonic plate boundaries and ocean spreading centers. All of the detail on the outside of EarthView is visible during sessions inside the globe … though in reverse!

The EarthView Team is grateful to our colleagues at Littleton Middle School for preparing this one-minute video for viewers who have not yet seen EarthView.

The video makes two excellent points: The excitement of an EarthView visit is contagious, and socks are required!

Geography in the Region

The goal of the program is not only to teach students about the world, but also to emphasize the need for more geography instruction in primary and secondary schools. "Almost no geography is taught beyond the 7th grade," said Ms. Sokol, who works both with EarthView and with National Geographic's Our Wonderful World program. "This is unacceptable in a world that is becoming increasing globalized, where we must know about the places that make up our world. The EarthView is a great dramatization of a globalized world and we are eager to bring the study of geography to our students using this unique and effective tool."

If you have a school or qualified youth program in Southeastern Massachusetts, the EarthView team would like to come to you! The main requirement to for the EarthView program is a gym that has a working height of at least 20 feet, with no hot lights below 24 feet. Please read the Program Specifications page for more details, and contact EarthView@bridgew.edu to inquire about scheduling. Currently, EarthView is being scheduled with lead times of about six months.